Liz Thomas knows how to navigate all kinds of terrain. She’s equally adept at trekking trail as pounding pavement, having completed dozens of long-distance wilderness hikes and hundred-plus-mile urban thru-hikes. She plans the latter around themes unique to each city she traverses. She once walked 150-miles through San Francisco by connecting all its public stairways. It’s clear Thomas is happiest outside when she’s putting one foot in front of the other. Here, a few insights she’s shared with TPL over the years:

On the speed of discovery …

I like to see places by foot. Hiking is about discovery and the excitement of what’s next. Three miles per hour is a speed where I can stop, chat, and really take the time to connect to a place—its topography, history, and people.

On the urban hike that most surprised her …

I’ve always been intimidated by the Big Apple. It was too crowded, too confusing—too much. Plus, there’s one reputation it doesn’t have: green. I didn’t expect to find very much of the natural world remaining in a city so thoroughly charted and claimed by humans. But when I looked into it, I learned that nature is abundant in New York.

More than twenty percent of the city’s land is used for parks and recreation. Nature is almost everywhere throughout the five boroughs … with the exception of the one place the city’s youngest residents are required to be: schoolyards.

As I researched New York, I started to wonder: Why did turn-of-the-century architects design schoolyards as if they were big-box store parking lots? Why are kids fenced into asphalt lots that look more like prison yards than play areas? As a wilderness trekker, I know just how restorative, calming, and healing it can be to leave the pavement and soak up nature. What must it feel like to be a kid and not have that choice to make? Read more about Thomas’ thru-hike through New York via the city’s public school playgrounds. 

On the formative role of local parks in early childhood …

[On my urban hike through NYC], I watched a dad balance his five-year-old daughter as she pedaled around the track at P.S. 130 in the South Bronx. It reminded me of one of my earliest memories: teetering on training wheels at my school’s basketball courts. So many years later, my stomach still drops at the thrill I felt when Dad let go of the bike. Defining moments in life are made in parks. I wouldn’t be the athlete I am today had it not been for my local park.

On the benefits of hiking in a city …

I love being on trail, but I also understand that the prospect of wilderness travel can be really intimidating.

You have to travel to the trailhead, and round up the gear, which can be expensive, and then you have to figure out how to use it. How do you find clean water? What happens if someone gets hurt? What about wildlife? These are the kinds of questions you don’t have to worry about in a city setting—it opens a lot more doors, and you can do it for a lot less money.

At the same time, so many of the things I love about wilderness hiking carry over to the city: you’re still using your body and seeing the world at three miles per hour. You’re exploring and seeing new places, meeting cool people, uncovering all the hidden surprises a city has to offer, navigating with a map, and contending with unexpected hurdles on your route.

On losing yourself to find yourself …

We go onto trails thinking that the trail transforms us and we come out realizing that’s who we were all along.

On one nagging question that keeps her motivated to keep up the urban hiking …

Countless Americans have no choice but to walk wherever they need to go. So how can we invest in and design our cities so everyone can get where they need to go safely?